


Shirtless

by avocadoatlaww



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Neighbours, ennoshita is suffering, for the ennotanazine, mentions of kinonari, poor Ennoshita, rated teen for alcohol, supportive friends, tanaka is always shirtless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 18:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13254504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avocadoatlaww/pseuds/avocadoatlaww
Summary: Ennoshita Chikara had 99 problems, and his neighbour across the hall was probably half of them. He was fit, cheerful, loud, and overall a generally nice human being, and most of the time, he was shirtless.My contribution for theEnnoTana Zine.





	Shirtless

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic for the [EnnoTana Zine](https://ennotanazine.tumblr.com/post/169073733384/snapshots-an-ennotana-fanzine-is-now-available) and thought I should publish it here as well. If you haven't already, go check out the zine! It's free and full of lovely fanfics and fanart. I'm so happy I got to be part of it. 
> 
> As always, English is not my native language, and I'll be grateful if people point out any typos or grave mistakes I've made. This fic was beta read by the lovely Lils, bless you, but all mistakes are mine. 
> 
> The characters do not belong to me.

Ennoshita Chikara had 99 problems, and his neighbour across the hall was probably half of them. He was fit, cheerful, loud, and overall a generally nice human being, and most of the time, he was shirtless.

The first time they met, had been the day Ennoshita moved into the building. Ennoshita had been lugging boxes up the stairs, with the help of his two best friends, Kinoshita Hisashi and Narita Kazuhito. He had just put his last box down on the floor when the door to the neighbouring flat flew open, and two men about Ennoshita’s age came barrelling out.

Ennoshita didn’t even get to react before he was sprawled out on the floor, the tallest of the newcomers on top of him. Sharp, blue grey eyes stared surprised into his sleepy looking ones. Behind them, he could hear the other newcomer howling with laughter, and even Kinoshita and Narita were snickering. Ennoshita could feel his face go warm with a blush. A couple of seconds later, he could see the stranger’s eyes widen with the realisation of their predicament. He quickly jumped to his feet, and gave Ennoshita a hand to help him up from the floor.

“I am so sorry. Oh, my God, I’m so fucking sorry-” The stranger started rambling, and Ennoshita cut him off by saying that it was fine. He was fine.

Now that they were both on their feet, Ennoshita got a better view of the guy that ran him down. His hair was buzzed short on the sides and in the back, but had been allowed to grow into longer curls on top. He was about the same height as Ennoshita, with a lean build, but he was still clearly athletic, which Ennoshita could tell since the stranger was currently shirtless. The blush Ennoshita was sporting deepened drastically.

“Hey, Ryuu, hurry up, we’ll be late.” The shout from the second stranger reminded Ennoshita and the other boy, Ryuu apparently, that they were not alone.

“I’m coming, Noya,” Ryuu answered quickly, and hurried after the shorter boy. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he turned back towards Ennoshita. “I’m Tanaka Ryuunosuke, by the way. I guess we’ll see each other around.”

“… Yeah, I guess so,” Ennoshita answered weakly. “I’m Ennoshita. Ennoshita Chikara.”

Tanaka winked at him, and then he and Noya disappeared down the stairs.

Ennoshita looked towards his friends, and upon noticing the gleeful looks on their faces, he realised they were never going to let him forget this.

After that, Tanaka and Ennoshita ran into each other quite often in the corridor of their building, and more often than not, Tanaka was shirtless. This was usually because Tanaka had been out running, but it also happened when he was going out to fetch the post. In the end, Ennoshita just pegged it down as a “Tanaka thing”. The two weren’t really friends, but they did say hi when they met, and sometimes they exchanged a sentence or two.

After a while, Tanaka’s usual state of undress became some sort of problem for Ennoshita. In Ennoshita’s opinion, Tanaka was a bit too hot for his own good, and being exposed to his toned stomach more than once a week, was becoming a bit of a trial. Tanaka was just too pretty, and Ennoshita’s very gay heart didn’t know how to deal with it.

The two of them didn’t talk for real again until one day when Ennoshita somehow managed to leave his key inside his flat. Their building, for some stupid reason, had doors that locked automatically. It was probably for safety reasons, Ennoshita mused, but for people like him, who often forgot his keys, it was a disaster.

Ennoshita was just about to call the landlord to come with the master key when he realised he hadn’t saved the number on his phone. The situation couldn’t get worse, could it? He sunk down on the floor, leaning against his door. What was he supposed to do now? That was when he remembered that his neighbour, one Tanaka Ryuunosuke, was probably at home and definitely had the number to the landlord. It was at least worth a try to knock on his door to check.

Luckily for Ennoshita, Tanaka turned out to be at home. He appeared to be coming straight out of the shower because he was just wearing a towel wrapped around his hips, his hair still damp.

_Well, fuck,_ Ennoshita thought. _Can he_ not _look so good all the time?_

“Ennoshita?” Tanaka raised an eyebrow at him. This was unusual for them. Yeah, they talked when they met each other in the corridors, but that was it. They never actually knocked on each other’s doors.

Ennoshita swallowed, and then smiled at Tanaka.

“Hey, Tanaka-san, I was just wondering if you could help me out a bit.”

“Yeah, of course, what’s the problem?”

“Well, you see, this is kinda embarrassing …” Ennoshita rubbed the back of his neck. “I seem to have forgotten my keys inside my flat before I left for uni this morning, and the doors lock automatically, which you know, I guess, and I was just wondering if you could get me the landlord’s number, which I for some reason haven’t saved on my phone yet, so he can come with the master key, so that I can-”

Ennoshita was rambling, but Tanaka didn’t seem to mind. There was an amused smile on his face, when he cut Ennoshita off.

“Come in, will ya? I’m just gonna go fetch my phone so that I can get ya the number.” Tanaka retreated into his flat, leaving the door open so Ennoshita could follow him in.

“Pardon the intrusion,” Ennoshita mumbled, walking through the door and closing it behind him. Standing in the small hallway, he was suddenly uncertain whether he should take his shoes off and follow his almost naked neighbour further into the flat, or if he should just stay where he was.

A couple of minutes later, Tanaka appeared in front of Ennoshita again. This time with a pair of sweatpants on, but still no shirt.

“Here’s the number.” Tanaka gave Ennoshita a slip of paper with a number hastily scratched onto it with a blunt pencil. Ennoshita stared intently at it, so that his eyes would not trace over Tanaka’s well sculpted stomach, and down towards the soft line of hair that disappear in the grey sweatpants he was wearing.

“Thanks,” Ennoshita said, a bit awkwardly, his face flushed the wrong shade of scarlet. “I’m just going to … uh … call then.”

“Ya can come inside and stay here while waitin’ for the landlord to arrive,” Tanaka offered good-naturedly, and Ennoshita accepted right away. It dawned on him a couple of seconds later that he had just subjected himself to wait together with a shirtless Tanaka for the time it took the landlord to arrive. There was no way he would survive.

Luckily for Ennoshita, the landlord arrived after only fifteen minutes. While actually talking to and getting to know his neighbour had been nice, Ennoshita had been too distracted to follow the conversation fully. They had talked about university life mostly, and luckily, Tanaka hadn’t realised that Ennoshita’s thoughts had been straying further and further away from the topic of classes. When the landlord came, Ennoshita thanked the other boy for letting him stay and almost ran out of his flat. It had been a trying day, and he really needed some rest.

After that day, the two of them chatted more when they met, and in a way, they became friends. Ennoshita learned that Tanaka was studying to become a grade school teacher, and that his friend, Nishinoya, called Noya by most people, was playing volleyball competitively. Tanaka also told him about his sister and his volleyball team from high school.

Tanaka was friendly and excitable, and he listened to Ennoshita in a way that made him feel heard, wanted. So, he told Tanaka about his film studies, how he wanted to become a director. He told him about being an only child, but how he didn’t mind, since he’d always had Kinoshita and Narita there for him.

Ennoshita liked Tanaka. A lot. And it was starting to become a problem.

***

Tanaka was woken up from his nap by his phone violently vibrating in his back pocket. Without looking at the display, he accepted the call.

“… Hello?”

“Hello, this is Kinoshita,” the voice on the other end said. In the background Tanaka could hear loud music blaring. “I’m calling about Ennoshita. Are you Tanaka-san?”

Checking the display on his phone, Tanaka could see that the call did indeed come from Ennoshita’s phone. They had exchanged numbers some time ago, but so far, neither of them had had use of it.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Tanaka answered the guy he assumed was Ennoshita’s friend.

“Oh, thank God.” Kinoshita sounded relieved and started rambling. “So, Narita and I thought we should take Ennoshita out to a party. The guy needs to get out of his flat now and then, you know, and after a while, we lost him in the crowd. It was just half an hour or something, I swear, but something must have happened because when we found him again, he was smashed, and he won’t tell us why. Can you please come pick him up? We don’t know how to get him home otherwise…”

“Hey, relax, I’ll come. Where are ya?”

After getting the address from Kinoshita, Tanaka put on a shirt and shoes, grabbed his keys off the peg by the door, and left.

Tanaka could hear the music two blocks away. It sounded like the usual type of crap party music that no one actually likes, but everyone believes is necessary when you have a party. He couldn’t really imagine his quiet neighbour in a place like that, but then again, it wasn’t like Tanaka knew everything about Ennoshita anyway. Maybe he was a party person.

By the time Tanaka arrived, Ennoshita was already out in front of the house. He was leaning against a blonde boy, who was about the same height as him. Tanaka recognised him as one of the guys that had helped Ennoshita move in. Kinoshita, he guessed.

The blonde had his arms around Ennoshita to keep him from falling over. Tanaka could see him say something to Ennoshita, which made the black-haired boy’s head whip up. His gaze focused on Tanaka, and he smiled.

“Tanaka-san,” he slurred. “Why are you wearing a shirt?”

“Tanaka-san, right?” the blonde guy said before Tanaka could answer the question, “I’m Kinoshita. Thank you so much for your help.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Tanaka said. “I was just lazin’ around anyway.”

While they were talking, another boy Tanaka recognised from the day Ennoshita moved in joined them. He introduced himself as Narita, and with his help, they managed to manoeuvre Ennoshita from Kinoshita’s shoulder over to Tanaka’s.

“Sorry again for calling you out so late,” Narita said, an apologetic look on his face.

“It’s no problem,” Tanaka smiled at the two, noticing that their fingers were now laced together. “Go and enjoy the rest of the party, and I’ll get this guy home.”

The two smiled and thanked Tanaka one last time, before they went back inside the house.

“They are too adorable,” Ennoshita pouted. “I hate it.”

After a pause he added: “No, I don’t. I love them.”

“Ya ready to get home, then?” Tanaka asked with a chuckle. The difference between sober and drunk Ennoshita amused him.

While they were walking, Ennoshita blabbered on about everything and nothing. Tanaka hummed and nodded his head when needed. He enjoyed this chatty version of Ennoshita a lot. Ennoshita was cute. Adorable, really. And Tanaka was very bisexual, but he was not going to think about that.

“Why are you wearing a shirt, Tanaka-san?” Ennoshita tugged weakly at Tanaka’s shirt. “I don’t like it.”

“Ya don’t like it?” Tanaka questioned, surprised.

“No,” was the curt answer he got.

“And why don’t ya like it, may I ask?”

“You look better without it.”

Tanaka could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. _How is he so adorable?_ Tanaka couldn’t deal with this for much longer. Luckily for Tanaka, they were almost home.

By the time they were outside their doors, Tanaka’s face was incredibly red, and Ennoshita was giggling like a schoolgirl. Along the way, they had realised that Kinoshita had Ennoshita’s key for some reason, so Tanaka led them both into his own flat.

Ennoshita insisted on taking the couch, so Tanaka tried to make it as comfortable as possible for his guest, giving him the softest bedsheets and the fluffiest pillow he could find. Once had had gotten Ennoshita tucked in under the covers, Tanaka tried to ask why he had gotten so drunk, but Ennoshita only evaded his questions. He mumbled something about an ex, and Tanaka decided not to press him.

“Good night, Ennoshita,” Tanaka said, pressing his lips softly against Ennoshita’s forehead before leaving the other boy on the couch.

“Night, Tanaka-san,” Ennoshita mumbled, “I like you.”

Tanaka almost tripped over his feet at that last part, and went into his own room slightly shell-shocked.

Falling asleep that night was hard for Tanaka. Ennoshita’s last words swirled around in his head, making him a mess of emotions. Happiness mixed with confusion and disbelief did not make a good sleeping partner.

***

Ennoshita woke up with a thundering headache. Looking around, he quickly realised he was not in his own flat. He full out panicked for a couple of seconds, not remembering anything from the night before, but then he recognised the living room as Tanaka’s. He recognized the battered, old couch, the soft floral carpet on the floor, and the walls that were covered with photos, and calmed down immediately.

Looking closer at the photos, Ennoshita could see photos of what looked like a high school volleyball team. In one of them, they were all smiling, the guy in the middle holding up a big cup. Another picture was of a girl who looked like Tanaka with her arm around a young, bald version of Tanaka. Cute. There were other pictures as well. Pictures of friends, family, places, and so much more.

“Mornin’.”

Ennoshita jumped at the voice. Leaning against the door to the tiny kitchen was Tanaka, clad in just a pair of sweatpants.

“Uh … hey,” Ennoshita awkwardly replied, “morning.”

“Do ya remember anything from last night?”

Ennoshita shook his head. Tanaka motioned for him to follow him into the kitchen, and started telling him what had transpired the previous day. While Tanaka was talking, Ennoshita’s face grew hotter and hotter. Tanaka, himself, was bustling around the stove making eggs, and since he had his back towards Ennoshita, the dark-haired boy didn’t notice the blush on his face.

When Tanaka finished talking, silence spread in the kitchen, the only sound being the eggs frying in the pan. After a few awkward minutes, Tanaka broke the silence.

“Did ya mean it?”

“… What?”

“When ya said ya liked me. Did ya mean it?”

“I-I-” At this point, Ennoshita’s face was as red as a ripe tomato. “I … did.”

His voice had been so small, he didn’t think Tanaka had heard him. Tanaka had, though, and he turned towards Ennoshita, cupping his face in his hands.

“Then ya won’t mind me doing this?” he asked before he kissed him. It was a soft, tentative kiss, and after a second, Ennoshita kissed him back. When they broke apart, Tanaka looked almost as surprised as Ennoshita felt.

“Do ya wanna be my boyfriend?” Tanaka asked, blushing deeply.

Ennoshita smashed their lips together again. More forceful this time. More passionate.

“Yes,” he gasped when they pulled away from each other, “I’d love to.”


End file.
